A woman was sentenced to death Friday for the murder of her ex-husband, becoming the first female inmate on Ohio's death row since 1991.
Donna Roberts, 59, was convicted this month of the 2001 slaying of Robert Fingerhut. The judge accepted the jury's recommendation that she be executed; he could have sentenced Roberts to life in prison.
At her trial, Roberts told reporters she wanted the death penalty.
Nine Ohio women have been sentenced to death. Four had their sentences commuted to life in prison, and two had their convictions reversed, according to the public defender's office. Three were electrocuted: one in 1938 and two in 1954, the Death Penalty Information Center said.
As of April, there were 48 women on death row in the United States, just over 1 percent of the 3,500 death row inmates. Ten women have been executed since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, according to the center.